Tales of the Aggronaut

Ghosts and Spectres

April 21, 2016 by Belghast

Destiny Bucket List

One of the things that I love about Destiny is that there are so many intricate things to do… but unfortunately a lot of them require a full group to actually do them. I mean it is awesome that I have Axioma Clan to back me up in doing these, but my default “non-raid night” stance is wandering around aimlessly soloing things. So as a result there are several things that I just have not been able to accomplish for one reason or another because I needed to organize a group. One of those was finding all of the pieces for the Dead Cult Ghost from the Paradox Daily heroic mission. I love the Stranger’s Rifle so much, and when I found out that there was a year two version called No Time To Explain… I knew I wanted it. Unfortunately to get it you have to go through a series of jumping puzzles in the daily heroic and retrieve several different dead ghost shells. After turning that piece in the next weekly reset you should in theory get the follow up quest from Lakshmi from the Future War Cult. I had watched a handful of videos and I knew that under pressure there was zero chance of me successfully navigating the jumping puzzles and finding all of the ghosts on my own.

This is where my amazing friend Jex comes in because he seems to have the sort of mind for remembering strange destinations. The problem being that Jex is just about to head out on vacation for a week… and as of writing this post he should already be travelling. I had a ton of other folks offer to help out like Broken and Wet, but by the time I made it in game I had an invite waiting on me from Jex and shortly after my friend Sagacyte joined. I of course died a few times doing the jumping bits, and as far as the sped up vault of glass jumping puzzle… I just hung out watching Saga complete it like a pro and pull me through to the other side. I died a handful of times but not apparently during the critical junctures, because I believe there is a piece of this quest that you cannot die during. In any case if all works well next Wednesday I should have the final step that ultimately leads to my shiny new No Time to Explain. I am super thankful to Jex and Saga, and all the other people in Axioma Clan who offered to help out with this. Now I guess this just leaves the Black Spindle that has eluded me, but hopefully with all the light levels we have been gaining getting that done will be significantly easier.

Spectre Time

So last night Jex literally snuck on just long enough to get me my cult ghost and then disappeared into the background again to prepare for his trip. After he left, and ultimately Sagacyte left as well I wound up heading downstairs to play Destiny from the comfort of the couch and remotely connected through my laptop. It feels like my Warlock is the unwanted orphan of my characters, because he always seems to get the worst hand-me-downs. This is largely a side effect of simply being the last class that I leveled, and as a result having the lowest overall light level. The truth is though that I like playing my Warlock way more than I like playing a Hunter. I think I would probably enjoy the hunter, but it is going to require copious amount of time unlocking class abilities to really get to that point. Gunslinger seems like the hunter for me, but it is also the class I have progressed the least. Whereas on the Warlock I pretty much like all of the classes for one reason or another, with Sunsinger probably being my least favorite. In any case I wanted to chill out and spend the night working through some of the bounties that I had stacked up for the warlock. On both the Hunter and Warlock I tend to accept bounties until I have no more room, and then once a week work through most of them.

The interesting lesson learned last night while wandering around and completing bounties is just how much I like the Red Spectre. I mean I only held onto this weapon because it looks like Red Death… and I am so in love with Red Death. The roll on this weapon is not amazing, but in spite of that I find that I really enjoy using it. It kicks like a mule, but it seems to do so way more predictably than a lot of the other weapons I have with shit stability. In theory once I get it properly leveled it will be performing better, but even in the stock form I enjoy it. What it ultimately feels like to me is Fabian Strategy… that is once the rate of fire boost kicks in. This thing is a really strange archetype, because it is not really a bullet hose because it has way more impact than they do… but it has a much faster rate of fire as compared to a lot of the slower rifles I have. The only problem is… whether or not I will be stealing this for my Titan once I get it leveled up. I have a bad habit of stealing the best weapons for that character, and giving the others my scraps. In theory I would love it for all of my characters to be self sufficient, and I know that thanks to the miracle of the website and mobile app… there is never a situation where I need to use a crap weapon. However when it comes to day to day play I always seem to just go with whatever happens to be in the inventory of a given character. The positive of this however is that I end up testing out a lot of weapons that I would not otherwise play with… and often times finding some gems in my dust bin.

Light Improving

April 20, 2016 by Belghast

Catching Up

One of my favorite things about the April patch is that I finally feel like I am catching up to all of the folks who have been playing since the dawn of time. More important than that… I feel like I have a clear path to be able to reach 335. There are things within my control that I can do solo that will allow me to slowly but certainly make progress. Namely one of the big ones right now is faction packages. Many of the factions have the code that make sure an item that comes from that package is better than your current light level. So this means I am constantly getting upgrades that I can either use as is, or infuse into my existing item from doing Vanguard and the three Tower faction missions. This also means that those daily bounties are more important than they have ever been, and the same goes with the crucible bounties whenever I am feeling my Wheaties and decide to do some serious pvp. More importantly than any of this… I feel in control of my own “Destiny”… pun intended.

Much of my early frustration with this game is it felt like there were missing rungs on the ladder that I had to have someone show me where I should be climbing. Now I feel like there are objectives that I completely understand that I can be knocking out regularly to better myself. At this point as the above image shows I have managed to take my Titan to 321, Hunter to 310 and as of last night Warlock to 302. The Warlock and Hunter will likely always be second stringers for me, but I do want to spend more time pushing them up. Namely I would really like to unlock all of the stuff on all three sub classes but that simply requires a lot of play. As for now I am still very much enjoying the process of infusing up old weapons and dusting them off to enjoy them once more. I have a lot of really great weapons, that were just lacking light level to be used on a regular basis. At some point however I am going to have to reconcile a bunch of the stuff and figure out which versions of which weapons I intend to keep permanently. For example I have six different Havoc Pidgeons sitting in the bank and five different 1000 Yard Stares… as well as a large assortment of Zarinaea-D. I don’t really need ALL of them… just keep the best rolls and swap weapons as needed via the web site or mobile apps.

Pipe Dream

Every so often I come up with an idea that while I lack the technical know how to actually build it… I know it is functionally possible. Within the server services world.. there is a marvel of modern science referred to collectively as the IP KVM or remote keyboard/video/mouse switch. While remote desktop is a thing that works great most of the time… there are times when you need to literally lay hands on a box because something has hung on boot up. This is where the IP KVM steps into play, because it emulates sitting physically at the keyboard from quite literally anywhere on the network that can reach it. The other awesome thing about them is that generally speaking they are almost as good as sitting on the box with many of them getting to the point where you can hardly tell the difference. What I want is for some budding entrepreneur or kickstarter campaign to come up with this technology… but for consoles. Sure PS4 Remote Play is cool, but I also want to be able to play remotely from my PS3… or even say older analog systems. The idea would be a rack mounted type system so in theory you could dump all of your consoles in the equivalent of a server room. Instead of harddrive arrays you could build special four unit high rack cases that allowed you to plug in a whole slew of console games and have them selectable remotely.

The other idea would be that each console had custom hookups and the hardware KVM device would allow you to configure emulation of the devices. So you could remake your Nintendo controller to be fully functional from something like a PC connected Xbox 360 controller. Now there are oddities like the Wii/Wii U that would be difficult to emulate but in theory most controllers work just fine for other controllers. For years I’ve loved this idea of having all of the games I want to play “on tap” and thanks to both the Twisted and official PS4 Remote Play app I am using the hell out of this functionality. It is cool as hell to be able to sit downstairs on the sofa with my laptop and have full access to all of my PS4 games, and be able to play them with minimal latency. I just wish this same concept worked with everything. It feels like this is the sort of thing that would be doable, just no one has tried to make it work. Even if you started with only consoles that supported USB controls and HDMI output… that would give you a decent base unit that could then maybe be expanded with retro modules that daisy chained onto the base unit. So here you go… I give this idea freely to the world… just someone make it happen because I want to throw money at you.

Ship Happens

April 19, 2016 by Belghast

Meeting Folks

It feels like over the last several days we have gotten an entire years worth of rain… all at once. There is so much standing water in my front yard that I am beginning to think I actually do have a pond. The only positive of this is that once it has all soaked in everything should green up even more than before. The only negative about the rain today is that I am supposed to go out to lunch today, and the place we picked is within walking distance of my work. It would seem silly to drive for something that close, but I am hoping by the time lunch rolls around the rain has at least slowed to a sprinkle. The reason why I mention this happening at all is because who I am meeting for lunch are long time gamer friends Damai and Erry which is kinda cool. They are passing through town on their drive across the country, and in theory they should be getting to Tulsa around noonish. Now I got to meet Damai at Pax South, but this will be the first time meeting his sister Erry which is kinda cool. As far as where we are going, I picked a BBQ joint that I like because honestly… when it comes to Tulsa cuisine I always struggle to pick that one quintessential thing that everyone needs to try. Normally I would have suggested a sausage cheeseburger from Ron’s but that doesn’t always make great “travelling for long distances on the road” food given the copious amount of grease.

The funny thing about meeting folks that I have known for years online, is that no matter who it is I always get nervous. I always worry that I won’t live up to whatever impression of me that they might have in their head. Granted at this point I have met a bunch of folks that I have gamed with for years, and it has all essentially worked out fine once the initial awkwardness of translating that teamspeak voice to a physical body. That said it still stresses me out far more than it should. The positive about going out for a meal is that it gives an activity to focus on other than trying to fill all of the gaps with discussion. Hell even with people I have known for years, my vehicle of choice for hanging out is over a restaurant table. There is something primal about sharing a meal together, and there is also something comforting about it as well. All of this said I am not terribly stressed about this situation since as I said before I have at least met Damai in the flesh before. It should be really cool and I have blocked off a decent chunk of my schedule to allow for variance in when they actually get here. I should probably totally ask Rae to see if she wants to come too since she at least knows Damai.

Building a Fleet

Space-Age Mariner

Crypt Hammer

Gloriole Jump

Ripship Pardoner

Ketch Me If You Can

The strangest thing about the recent Destiny patch has been what seems to be a massive increase in the number of ship drops. All five of the above ships I’ve gotten since the patch last week. One came from the loot boxes, three from doing various activities, and one from opening treasure boxes. I am not sure if I just hit a lucky spot in the randomizer or if they changed the magic formula that indicates if drops happen. It feels like what they have actually done is made the chance of a ship drop disconnected from any other rewards, which in theory makes you roll on a much shallower loot table. In any case I am a huge fan of whatever these changes are because it is helping me build out my fleet. I am still chasing the taken ship from the loot boxes however, because I love that ship model and I have yet to get any of that variety. I do think that the Ripship Pardoner above is just about the quintessential “Titan” ship… big bulky and heavily armed. There are times however that I kinda wish that the ships actually “did” something, or that there was some sort of a ship to ship combat mini-game along the lines of SWTOR. Granted I never played the one is SWTOR but it was nice knowing it was out there.

Another aspect of this patch that I am loving is the fact that it once again rewards me for doing patrol missions. That seems to be just about the fastest way to level my Vanguard and Faction reputation. Every ding rewards you a package and those packages take your currently equipped loot into consideration meaning that more often than not I end up with an upgrade. Yesterday I pushed a faction across and wound up getting a 322 piece of armor that was immediately infused into my Iron Banner arms. I love that almost anything I can do right now has the chance of giving me an upgrade. I’ve also noticed that PVP seems to be dropping weapons more often, because last night pretty much every round I played had someone walking away with a legendary weapon. I ended up walking away myself with a Red Spectre with a less than amazing roll… but I am still going to try and make it work because I love the whole “Red Death” graphic. The biggest problem is the stability on the weapon, but I am willing to see if I can make it work. In any case right now I am just in love with all of the options I have and each one of them has a path that can get me upgrades.

Old School New School

April 18, 2016 by Belghast

Doomed

Firstly if you didn’t check it out I highly suggest you read yesterday’s blog post if for no reason other than the amazing custom artwork by my friend @Ammosart. As far as this weekend went, it was a bit of an odd one. I once again played a lot of Destiny, but this morning that is not one of the shooter experiences I am going to be talking about. I really hate it when game companies gang up on each other, because this weekend there were “special” beta tests going on for Overwatch, Battleborn and Doom. While at first they might not seem all that related, they are each chasing a multiplayer experience that they would really love you to care about. Battleborn is not even on the list of games I was interested in, thanks to a really bad alpha experience causing me to pitch it to the curb. Doom however… I really want to like and keep giving it ample attempts to sell me on its regressive notion of what first person shooter multiplayer should be. Now please note… I’ve had access to the alpha for quite awhile now thanks to a strange presell deal that they had for Wolfenstein The New Order. I have not really talked about it before now however due to the NDA it has been wrapped in, but with this weekends big beta event… that has been dropped.

Doom Multiplayer is a game that really hopes that you remember Quake 3 Arena fondly, and have been craving that sort of gameplay with marginally better graphics. The gameplay honestly gives flash backs to playing Rocket Arena… during a time when even then I thought the Quake Arena experience was far inferior to Unreal Tournament that I tended to play more often. If you miss the days of being shot across the map from someone you can’t even see as you spawn in… then this is going to be the game you have been hankering for. The big problem I had was in all of the matches that I have played… I never really found myself having fun. I mean I did okayish, but it very much felt like wandering around the same claustrophobic hallways that we used to in Quake. The worst sin however is the movement… it feels completely unrealistic and the same sort of stiff speedy running that those original Quake games had. What it is trying to be is fast paced run and gun action, but in an era when we can do that without sacrificing animation and design aesthetics. I’ve now played several different PC alpha tests, and installed it on the PS4 to give it a go there… and no matter what I keep coming up with the same impression. This is not a fun multiplayer experience.

Molten Core!

The general “unfun” nature of Doom was only drilled home thanks to also being in Overwatch this weekend. It feels like both games are trying really hard to deliver something similar, at least in the department of a faced paced shooter department. Also both games really want you to want to watch them as some sort of an e-sports extravaganza. However Doom is a world that traded the drab green and brown nothingness of Quake for various shades of orange and blood red… whereas Overwatch is almost more game world than it actually needs to support the combat. As you wander around the world there is a constant barrage of tiny details. Posters on the wall, images up on computer screens… advertisements for murloc themed restaurants. The world is vibrant and feels alive, and almost begs you to inhabit it, and what makes it even better is that every single character is just as vibrant and well designed. Playing Torbjorn feels unique and completely different from playing Pharah or Reaper or Reinhardt. The only negative here is that at times they almost feel too unique, in that the control scheme of one champion doesn’t begin to map up to playing another one. It is fairly normal for “league” style champion design to differ wildly, but at least in League you are always going to be using QWE, but for Overwatch champions there is essentially an array of hotkeys that get used… and not all champions use all hotkeys. The most confusing aspect of this is how some champions have a movement key and others don’t… and even among the ones that do they don’t always sync up to exactly the same key.

So what ended up having to happen is that I started to compartmentalize “this is how I play this champion” from “this is how I play overwatch”. The only unfortunate thing about this game is that you can see how much effort they put into building the world, and personally I get a little nostalgic about “what might have been”. Titan was supposed to be Overwatch the MMO, and I would have loved that. Even if they had given me a game along the lines of Destiny or Division I would have eaten it up completely. So as you are playing through the levels you see signs of what might have been. As far as the game play itself it centers around running multiplayer matches, to rank up… to unlock loot crates… to get sweet skins and other cosmetic stuff… that improve your game play experience for those champions that you really love. At its core this game is a really tight multiplayer team based shooter, and if that is not the experience you have been looking for… this probably isn’t the game for you. It plays like a modern version of Team Fortress 2 and feels tighter than that game ever did. Every aspect of the experience seems like it has been painstakingly planned and the awesome thing about it is that for once Blizzard is probably being more forthcoming with information than any other multiplayer game has been. For example they went into more detail about the netcode behind the game play than any company I have ever seen. The only unfortunate thing is that I am going to have to likely wait until May 3rd to get to play the game again, given that is when the pre-launch open beta period begins. The game lived up to all of my expectations, and I am amped to get to play it with friends.